//------------------------------// // chapter four: adjusting to a new life // Story: Broken Wings // by JPTrixie-Fan //------------------------------// Wind whistled through the trees breaking the silence of the night that surrounded the ponies that stood in the orchard. The alicorn towered over the brown Pegasus, using her magic to lift and gently place his unconscious companion on the ground next to him before trotting closer; the mare of the night suddenly laid her forehooves around his neck and embraced him as a mother would her foal. “I have missed you my friend.” She said gently breaking the hug and looking at the armoured pony before her. “Miss Crescent Moon, I don’t understand.” The stallion looked up at the mare in confusion, and then turned to look at the light blue unicorn next to him. “I have to get her home, before she catches a cold.” The look in his eyes told a different story to the princess, his eyes looked upon the azure mare not with a friendly concern but with a deeper emotion. The way he looked at the unicorn tugged at Luna’s heart, could it be that she felt more for him than she thought? Could the look he had given the small mare be… love? The idea of him loving any mare other than Luna stabbed at her heart like daggers, was she jealous of the unicorn that lay sleeping at his side? The princess shook her head trying to dispel the thoughts that taunted her, but no matter how she tried she couldn’t stop thinking about his gaze upon the mare and so without her choice she let slip the question that burned in her mind. “Is that mare your lover?” Her ears dropped, she didn’t believe that such a thought had escaped and became audible but it was too late to retract, all she could do now was hope the answer was not what she feared. “No… She’s… The pony that I owe my life to and a friend that I hold dear.” The stallion said and once more glanced down at the mare. “I see, if she saved your life then I too owe her my thanks.” The royal alicorn turned away to face into Ponyville, then glancing over her shoulder to once again look upon the stallion she spoke. “Seeing you in that costume reminds me, I have something to give you. It’s very valuable so keep it safe ok?” With that a sword materialised before her and she gently grasped it with her forehoof. Then turning to face Broadsword once more she held out the weapon offering it to the Pegasus; this act was hard for her as the sword was the only item of his she had left and now she was losing it, but the weapon was his and it had to be returned to the former captain. “A sword?” he asked looking rather puzzled by the gesture, but as if by magic he began reaching for it. “It is yours now, and it my last gift to you. May it serve you well as it has me.” Taking a last look at the stallion Luna noticed that the cloak he wore was the very one she had given him two days before, she felt joy at this realisation; perhaps it was because she felt as though some of the old captain had remained she dared to wonder as the stallion took the sword in his hooves. With that, the princess flapped her wings and took off into the sky leaving the stallion looking on in awe and wondering if he would ever get to soar like that. *** The palace was filled with darkness by the time Luna had returned, Celestia and her guard had all retired for the night and only Luna and her remaining servants and guards were up and around. The princess trotted soberly to her chambers; the events of the night had been jovial, but no matter how happy she had been she couldn’t shake the thoughts of jealousy from her mind and it was true that she had no claim to the stallion she had spoken to, but the truth was he was her guard first. This thought made her chuckle a little, the princess had never acted like a jealous filly before and now here she was making herself depressed, it almost seemed like a great cosmic joke. The princess was now facing out of her balcony and looking across the fields and forests that stood between Canterlot and Ponyville, her eyes weren’t focused on anything in particular she was just gazing out into space. To anyone observing her she looked like she was deeply lost in her thoughts but that wasn’t the case, far from it in fact; she was trying to forget the stallion and mare she had left in Ponyville but no matter how hard she tried the royal mare couldn’t shake the memory. Luna turned around, deciding to amuse herself she wandered to the former captain’s quarters. Luna’s eyes widened, she was rather shocked at the sight of Broadsword’s former room; it was a total pigsty… “Oh captain, how did you sleep in this mess?” the princess wondered as she stepped into the room, her eyes wandered around the mess that was his floor until she noticed a box poking out from his cupboard. Of course it was wrong to snoop through somepony else’s property, but if that pony is no longer that pony it must be alright, right? Luna dismissed her conscience with this thought and continued to look inside the box; it was filled with little scraps of hobbies that the captain had indulged in, but the most interesting thing was the folded up piece of paper at the bottom of the box. The princess unfolded the curious note; written upon it were a few dates and names the most prominent of which was a festival called Nightmare Night. The princess’s eyes grew at the sight of the celebration she had just attended and it was then she realised that Broadsword had already found out about tonight and was making plans to take her to it… it seemed so sad that everything had turned out this way, heaving a sigh Luna stepped out into the hallway and trotted off sombrely towards her room. *** The sun rose up from behind the mountains that formed the backdrop of Ponyville, forcing the light to break through the windows of the small trailer that was parked in the centre of the town. Blue eyelids gently prized themselves open as the warm beam of light lit up her face, Trixie awoke; surprised to find that she was now lying in her bed. The mare looked around confused, she was certain that she’d passed out in the apple orchards after the spider incident and so she tried to piece the whole night together but to no aid. In fact the mare even began to flirt with the idea that it was all a dream, but dismissed it when she noticed that she was still in costume; just then her door opened and a black mane poked through the gap. “Miss Trixie are you awake?” the black maned stallion asked as he entered the trailer. “Oh, Broadsword. Errm… yes the great and powerful Trixie is awake, what is it you want?” She stated trying to hide how glad she was that somepony was visiting her. “I was wondering if you want breakfast? I was making some you see and…” the stallion was cut off when the azure unicorn suddenly launched herself forward to hug him. “Miss Trixie!? What’s the matter?” The unicorn mare’s blue cheeks turned crimson as she grew embarrassed by her forward and rather brash behaviour “I’m sorry, it’s just you don’t need to call me Miss Trixie just Trixie is fine.” “Alright.” Broadsword smiled and asked again “Would you like some breakfast? I’m making toasted apple bread with raspberry jam.” This time Trixie’s response was less over the top, replying only with a smile and a small nod before letting the stallion go. After Broadsword had exited the room Trixie fell back on her bed and lay thinking about what she’d just done, what did it mean? She’d never acted like that before, after a few moments of wondering she dismissed her thoughts and tried to get rid of the blush from her cheeks. “maybe I’m sick?” she thought aloud and finally decided to get changed into her normal clothes. Minutes passed and Broadsword returned with a plate of apple bread toast, but his return was met with an embarrassed and now semi naked Trixie. The mare swiftly ushered the brown stallion out of the room using her magic, Broadsword still found this behaviour strange as she like all other ponies didn’t wear any clothing aside from her cape. Nonetheless the brown stallion complied (not that he had much choice) and stood outside of the room while she put her cape and hat on. “The great and powerful Trixie is now ready, you may now re-enter.” Her usual boastful demeanour had returned and the vulnerable mare that she had been had once again hidden itself behind her overconfident shield. Broadsword smiled, he knew this was all an act especially after the way she’d been last night; now she couldn’t hide her true self. Still, it was cute to see this façade and he just let her go on with the act as he sat the plate in front of her. The toast smelled delicious and tasted even better, but as Trixie ate she noticed the brown Pegasus smiling at her; her cheeks turned red once more and she tried to look away but kept finding herself making eye contact with the stallion. “What!? You’re embarrassing the great and powerful Trixie.” She said still trying to look away from Broadsword’s gaze. “You have crumbs on your cheeks.” The stallion smiled more as he leaned closer to the blushing mare. “What are you doing?” the azure cheeks of the mare were now blushing furiously as she leant back shyly. Broadsword lifted his hooves and gently turned Trixie’s muzzle to face him, using his hoof to lightly brush away the crumbs from her now burning crimson cheeks before sitting back down. The stallion’s sudden retreat had left Trixie confused and if truth be told unsatisfied, she was almost hoping that something would happen between them; hiding her disappointment she continued eating in hope that next time he may go further. **** Hoof beats echoed through the streets of Ponyville; an orange mare with a blonde mane galloped towards the town’s library with a rainbow maned Pegasus in close pursuit, to an onlooker it appeared like the Pegasus was chasing the earth pony but in truth they were racing… again. “A.J. how’d you get so fast?” “Heh, what’sa mattah Dash ya’ll gettin’ slower? Maybe it all the cider you’ve been drinkin’!” The two mares argued and raced through the town centre until the orange cowpony ran face first into a large dark brown Pegasus with bandaged wings. “Darnit! Ah mean, Ah’m sorry sugarcube are ya’ll alright?” the mare asked and straightening out her hat. The mare looked up to see the stallion had offered his hoof to help her up, after helping her up the Pegasus introduced himself. “I’m ok, are you miss?” “Applejack, but folks call me A.J. and sure Ah’m ok nothin’ Ah ain’t done before.” “I’m glad to hear that, I’m Broadsword by the…” Broadsword was cut when he noticed the blue Pegasus with the rainbow mane land near by. “Oh hello Miss Rainbow” “Oh heya Broadsword wasn’t it? AJ! What the buck? I thought we were racing, not trying to hit on stallions!” “What’d ya’ll say Rainbow Ah ain’t doin’ nothin’ like that!” “Suuuure ‘ya ain’t’ wait till I tell big mac and granny smith what you’ve been doing.” The blue Pegasus teased, in truth she knew that Applejack’s barn door didn’t swing that way but still she found tormenting her farmpony friend too much fun to stop. “Rainbow Ah said that’s enough, anyway sugar cube ya look like ya’ll are new in town so is there anythin’ ya need help with?” the orange cowpony asked turning once again to look at the brown Pegasus. “Well actually Miss Trixie said she needed money so I wanted to know if there was anywhere I could get a job?” In actuality Trixie had off hoofedly said that she was going to perform her act later to get some money, but Broadsword decided that he would earn his fair share too and so he set out to look for a job which led him to this encounter. “Trixie?! That no good show boatin’…” “AJ! Err… can we talk for a sec?” the rainbow maned mare interjected and swept Applejack to the side. After a few seconds of hushed whispers the two mares turned to face Broadsword again. “Well now that Dash here told me what’s goin’ on, sure. Ah got a job fer ya, Mah family needs somepony to help plough the fields for an extension to the north orchard and Ah’m sure Big Mac could use an extra set of hooves for the job. ” “That would be great Miss Applejack, I won’t let you down.” Broadsword was elated to hear that there was a job he could do, not only would he be doing something useful but he would also be repaying Trixie’s kindness. “Hey AJ after you show him to the farm are you up for drinking some cider and having a little competition?” Rainbow teased Applejack once again; knowing that the cowpony was growing more embarrassed by her taunts, but Applejack just ignored the blue mare and decided to tell the stallion what his job would be as they trotted away. *** The fields of the north orchard were vast and stretched all the way to the horizon, to the far left of the field Broadsword could see trees from an adjacent orchard poking over a small fence. Applejack lead the stallion over to a decrepit old tool shed where a large red stallion with a half apple cutie mark was sorting through the ploughs and carts; the blonde mare snuck up behind the huge stallion and gave him a kick with her forehoof, but the stallion didn’t yelp in pain nor did he jump at the surprise of somepony sneaking up behind him, he just turned to face the orange cowpony and spoke. “Eeyup.” “Hey Mac Ah’ve got a fella here who wants ta help with the orchard, his name’s Broadsword and he’s willin’ ta work real hard. So what d’ya say?” The large farm pony looked at Broadsword then turned to Applejack once again. “Eeyup.” “Now that that’s settled Ah’ll let ya get ta work.” And with that Applejack left the two stallions to do their job while she and Rainbow went to get their cider. *** “Eeyup, Ah reckon that’s enough fer today. Here’s ya pay sixty bits like we agreed and if ya’ll want more work ya can come by again tomorrow, Ah could definitely use ya help; ‘specially with AJ keep runnin’ off ta play with her friends. ” the red stallion passed Broadsword the money and turned to head into the main house leaving the Pegasus stallion to get his stuff together. “Hmmm… I guess I should head back before it gets da…?” the stallion found his thoughts cut off when he noticed three fillies stood in front of him, all three were stood wearing red capes with a coat of arms sewn on. The leader of this group had a red mane tied in a pink bow, she looked a lot like the other apple family members that broadsword had met; alongside her were two others a small white unicorn with a well groomed mane and an orange Pegasus with a scruffy purple mane. The three fillies stood looking at the large Pegasus stallion for a few moments which was starting to make him rather uncomfortable. “Uh…” the stallion looked away and tried to walk around the filly trio, but once again he was blocked by the group. “Hey mister, where’s ya cutie mark?” the yellow filly quizzed as she looked at him, it was just then that Broadsword realised that he’d forgotten to put his cloak back on and that his blank flank was completely on show. “Uh… I’m not…” the stallion was at a loss for words and with the group of curious fillies now circling him like a pack of sharks he had to think of an explanation. “I…” yet again he was cut off but this time it was by the orange Pegasus filly who had climbed up on his back and was inspecting his wings. “Hey how do you fly with these?! It’s so unfair!!” she said and began tugging at the bandaged messes that were formally his wings. “OUCH! Hey stop that!! They don’t work ok, just leave them alone! ” Broadsword scolded as he tried to put up with the pain, still this answer was followed by yet more questions from the trio; these questions he quickly answered to get them to go away. The last question they asked threw him off guard as it was simply so out of the blue. “So mister d’ya wanna join our club?” the yellow filly asked looking at the stallion full of hope. “Wait… what club?” he was still trying to avoid the trio as he asked this question, but no matter where he stepped they were there. “The Cutie Mark Crusaders of course! Because ya don’t have a cutie mark and it’s strange that a fully grown pony doesn’t have one don’tcha think?” the yellow filly was right, he didn’t have a cutie mark and worse he didn’t know why, now of course he wasn’t going to rely on this foals club to get his answers. Nonetheless he figured it wouldn’t hurt to just say yes, it’s not like he’ll actually go to the meetings or anything. “Sure, why not?” the stallion sighed, he still couldn’t believe that they had got him to finally give in. “Really? That’s fantastic, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo why don’t you get him sworn in while I go make him a fabulous new cape. I’m sure Rarity has some more gold fabric I could borrow.” And with that the small white unicorn hopped away leaving the others to introduce the rather unwilling stallion to their club. *** After the fillies had introduced themselves and sworn him in, he got his very own crusader patch which would have been a cape but Sweetie Bell couldn’t ‘borrow’ enough gold fabric from her sister. He finally managed to get away, but not before the sun had gone down and the street lamps had turned on. The streets were very peaceful when there weren’t any other ponies galloping or otherwise wrecking the serene atmosphere that the town had, in fact the only noise tonight was coming from the market square where Trixie’s trailer was parked. It was lucky that Broadsword was heading that direction anyway otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten to see what was going on. As the dark brown stallion drew closer he could see fireworks and hear the clopping of hooves on the ground, in the centre of this commotion stood Trixie’s trailer which had been dropped down into a stage and on that stage stood the azure mare herself. Broadsword watched in awe as the beautiful unicorn performed her various sorceries and illusions, but no matter how hard she tried the crowd kept dispersing until only a few parents and their foals were still stood watching her act. A few card and slight of hoof tricks later and it was time for the final act of the night; this was a trick that she had not yet perfected but she was relying on it to get the few remaining members of the audience to pay for the show. The trick itself was fairly straight forward, all she had to do was get it right and it was then she noticed that Broadsword was stood in the very centre of the front row; this for some reason caused her to blush furiously but she knew the show had to go on. The showmare wafted her cape in her typical showboating fashion and prepared for her big finally, the pyrotechnics on the stage exploded in a flurry of light and sound. Finally Trixie began her trick, placing her hat on the floor she makes it rise to show there’s nothing hidden underneath; then taking some lighter fluid she dowses herself from head to hoof and finally she removes her cape before setting herself ablaze. The sight of a burning pony shocked the audience into silence and terror until her cape fell from above smothering the blaze, but instead of laying over the unicorn’s shape it fell flat to the ground and the burning figure was nowhere to be seen; the stage fell into darkness until the hat on the ground began to rise revealing the azure mare that was now wearing it and remarkably her coat and mane weren’t even charred. The crowd cheered as the mare picked up her cape, but the pony cheering the loudest was the large brown stallion in the centre of the front row. It seemed that he had enjoyed the show much more than the foals that were also there. *** After the stage was packed away Trixie collected her payment and Broadsword approached her from the crowd still smiling in amazement from the show. “Miss Trixie that was absolutely astounding, how did you do it?” The stallion asked as he helped her carry the last of her props into the trailer. “A magician never reveals her tricks Broadsword, you should know that.” She retorted smiling playfully. “Well it was still the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen; I’d love to see it again.” The stallion smiled before remembering that he had something to show her, reaching into his saddle bag he fetched out his pay packet. “Miss Trixie I want you to have this as thanks for letting me stay with you. It’s only sixty bits though.” “S…sixty bits? Where did you get all that?” The mare stood looking at the stallion puzzled by the large amount of cash sat before her. “I got a job so this is for you as thanks.” He said smiling, totally unaware of the shock that plastered Trixie’s face. “You’re just full of surprises aren’t you?” With that Trixie just sighed and smiled before deciding to retire for the night.